Three years ago, I was accompanying a team of lawyers to
Ampara to provide lost and destroyed legal documents to Tsunami victims in
the Eastern Province. We travelled via Randenigala and had the opportunity
to behold the majestic reservoir, one of the many that the late leader
Gamini Dissanayake constructed under the Mahaweli Scheme. All the Legal
Aid Lawyers collectively paid tribute to this unique Sri Lankan leader.
His irrigation reservoirs, Randenigala, Rantambe, Victoria and the Gamini
Dissanayake Reservoir in Kotmale alone have made Gamini Dissanayake a
historical figure in our irrigation and agricultural civilization.

When we walk on the bunds of the city tank of Tissa Wewa,
we recall King Kavantissa. When we behold the splendour of Kalawewa, King
Datusena’s name comes to our minds. Mighty Minneriya brings to mind King
Mahasen and the sea of Parakrama awakens our gratitude to King
Parakramabahu the Great.

After the 12th century, only two Sri Lankan leaders have
earned comparable historical stature for building of irrigation
reservoirs. They are Sri Lanka’s first Prime Minister, D. S. Senanayake
for constructing the Senanayake Samudra in the Galoya Valley and the late
Gamini Dissanayake, for constructing the five major reservoirs under the
Mahaweli Scheme.

The hydrologic legacy that Gamini Dissanayake fostered in
this country is a historical legacy, perpetual and irrevocable. As long as
we are an agricultural country, the name of Gamini will linger not only in
the minds of the farmers in the Mahaweli Zone, but in the minds of all
agriculturists.

Gamini Dissanayake was a visionary leader. His vision was
based on human values, supported by appropriate skills. He provided what
is now termed as ‘Visionary Leadership’ to Sri Lanka.

Most of the readers are bound to wonder what my
credentials are to speak of visionary leadership, with special reference
to the late leader Gamini Dissanayake. I have two reasons. Firstly, when
Gamini Dissanayake was a Law Student in the mid 1960s, I was one of his
friends and for a while, a room mate at the Sri Lanka Law College Hall of
Residence, the Voet Inn.

Secondly, even though I was out of the country when Gamini
Dissanayake climbed the political heights, I followed his meteoric
political career through the media.

Gamini Dissanayake as a young law student evinced
ambition, and silently worked towards his goals. In his personal life, he
fell in love with Srima Lenaduwa, who at that time was considered one of
the brightest students at Law College. In his characteristic style, Gamini
kept his personal feelings very much

to himself until he passed the Final Advocate’s
Examination and subsequently married the love of his life in 1968.

Gamini was also very conscious of his father’s legacy of
being an elected Parliamentarian from Nuwara Eliya under the leadership of
the late S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in the 1956 General Elections. Andrew
Dissanayake, MP, later Deputy Minister, was a major influence during the
formative years of Gamini’s life.

After apprenticing in the Chambers of fellow Trinitian
Neville Samarakoon QC, Gamini took oaths as an Advocate in July 1967. At
that time there were two branches in the law profession; Advocates and
Proctors. The Advocate course required higher qualifications to enter the
course in Law College. Gamini took oaths as an Advocate of the Supreme
Court and functioned as Counsel until a few years later the Minister of
Justice, Felix R. Dias Bandaranaike fused the two branches of the
profession by legislation as Attorneys-at-Law.

Gamini practiced mostly in the Colombo District Courts as
a junior to the late B. J. Fernando, PC, the busiest Counsel working in
the Colombo District Court. Many senior proctors, now known as Instructing
Attorneys-at-Law, briefed Gamini to appear in diverse District Court
cases. He was doing extremely well for a junior in the Bar. Despite a
promising law practice Gamini had more pressing things in mind. The first
was the fruition of his courtship with Srima Lenaduwa, which within a
short period of time, culminated in marriage. The second was his
commitment to enter politics by following in the footsteps of his father
and serve the neglected Kandyan peasantry. Gamini’s first preference was
to obtain nomination as SLFP Organizer for Nuwara Eliya. I was present at
the residence of SLFP stalwart, the late T. B. Illangaratne when Gamini,
along with the late B. J. Fernando, PC, sought SLFP nomination for Nuwara
Eliya prior to the 1970 General Elections. For Gamini it was a natural
step to take. However, by that time the SLFP had already allocated the
seat to the late Daniel Appuhamy, a worker politician who had contested
Nuwara Eliya unsuccessfully in 1965.

Undeterred by the SLFP rejection, Gamini was given
nomination by the UNP to contest Nuwara Eliya by the late Prime Minister,
Dudley Senanayake who had a dispute with the outgoing MP, newspaper mogul
Donald Ranaweera. As the only newly elected UNP MP after the UNP debacle
in the 1970 elections, Gamini had a narrow legal shave when he was
unseated in an election petition, resulting in the deprivation of his
civic rights for seven years.

However, as fortune may have it, then, Minister of
Justice, Felix R. Dias Bandaranaike amended the Election Law. This was
primarily to benefit Nanda Ellawela, the SLFP MP for Ratnapura; but it
also resulted in the removal of the legal impediment before Gamini to
contest and win the ensuing by-election. The rest of Gamini Dissanayake’s
electoral politics is public history.

Now let us turn to our theme ‘Value-Based Visionary
Leadership’. Human values are increasingly getting confined to religious
teachings. The temple, the church, the synagogue and the mosque have
become residuaries of human values of tolerance, reciprocity, respect for
life and natural truthfulness and service above self.

All religions have taught human society to respect human
values. The core values of reciprocity is found in all religions; "Don’t
do unto others what you do not like to be done to you." Discrimination and
conflicts stem from deviation from this basic value. Intolerance of
differences in a plural society like Sri Lanka has resulted in violence
and loss of human life over decades. Sri Lanka is infamous in the world
for the 26-year-old man made disaster of the unresolved ethnic conflict.

Nature’s wrath that came by way of the Tsunami disaster on
26th December 2004, served to compound our dismal plight.

Injuries inflicted to the Sri Lankan psyche by these twin
tragedies, even in the best circumstances, will take decades to heal. That
would be possible only if we are led by ‘Visionary Leadership’ - Leaders
who put human values above power politics. A famous banker recently said
that what the country now needs is a Nelson Mandela or a Mahatma Gandhi -
symbols of value-inspired leadership in the world. We sincerely hope that
at least one of our present day leaders will evolve to be a leader who
will inspire our pluralistic nation spiritually and with a positive vision
of the future. That leader should have the capacity to translate the good
vision to reality.

Human values are the basis for human rights and human
duties. Affluent nations which propagate human rights should support
value-based education and social equity in poor countries.

Even in the field of human rights, our patrons insist on
promoting individual rights at the expense of family rights, which itself
is a human right under Article 16 (3) of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. Article 16 (3) reads, "The family is the natural and
fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society
and the State." I am yet to see a donor-supported programme on the human
rights of the family as an entity.

Value-based Visionary Leaders will always respect and
promote human values, human rights, including family rights and enforce
human duties. Rights and duties are two sides of the same coin and should
not be confined to the Constitution and conferences.

Gamini Dissanayake was a Value Inspired Visionary Leader
who stands out among the pageant of political leaders in this country. His
contribution to liberal democracy and humanitarian values will be
remembered and cherished by his contemporaries, and his singular
contribution of placing Sri Lanka as a golden, inerasable spot in the
cricketing map of the world will never be forgotten, as long as the game
is played in this planet.

Gamini also realised the importance of introducing English
as a link language to unite Sinhalese and Tamil speaking peoples. He was
pivotal in introducing English as a link language with the 13th Amendment
to the Constitution in 1987.

Gamini’s vision included educating children from among the
Kandyan peasantry to learn English and to achieve excellence and compete
in the modern world. This was part of his mission, that he could not
realise fully, as his time was consumed by the largest ever project in Sri
Lanka, the Accelerated Mahaweli Development Programme.

It fell upon his steadfast companion in life, Srima, to
embark upon the establishment of the Gamini Dissanayake Institute of
Technology and Vocational Studies (GDITVS), barely a year after his cruel
assassination. The institute, which caters to rural youths who have passed
the GCE (Advanced Level) but just failed to get sufficient marks to enter
a university, was first established in Kandy and was subsequently shifted
to Nuwara Eliya.

While the GDITVS augments the general education received
in other schools to enable students to gain employment in the modern
competitive economy, its students are given a special education in life
skills and values which would enable them to have a clear vision of their
future.

The institute promotes English, Computer and IT skills in
the modern definition of ‘literacy’. Thirty years ago, basic literacy
included only the ability to read and write one language and some
knowledge of Arithmetic. Functional literacy meant that in practical life
you are using the skills of reading, writing and basic arithmetic. Due to
the superior efforts of another Visionary Leader, Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara,
who introduced free education in the 1940s, Sri Lanka is considered a
highly literate country with an adult literacy rate of 92%.

The new definition ‘literacy’ in the globalised world is
not confined to the basic skills of reading and writing of one language
and arithmetic. Today, literacy includes the ability to use, in addition
to one’s mother tongue, a global language like English, French, Spanish or
Arabic. In the context of our country, the preferred global language would
be English. This is a positive heritage from our Colonial past.

Then, in the modern world, the pen is replaced by the
computer and libraries are replaced by the internet. If one is unable to
use the basic skills of a computer, or of accessing e-mail and the
internet, then one can no longer be considered literate.

Underprivileged students from Sinhala and Tamil speaking
homes have no access to either English or computers. The Mission of the
Gamini Dissanayake Foundation is to cater to this dire need. We should be
grateful to Mrs. Srima Dissanayake and the Board of Directors of the
foundation for taking this visionary step to assist needy youth of the
Nuwara Eliya District. This effort needs general support from the state
and the donor community, so that similar institutions could be established
in other remote parts of our country, for poor students who cannot afford
the exorbitant fees levied by computer and English language tutories - an
emerging growth industry.

While addressing a Presidential Election rally in Mutwal
14 years ago - on 23rd October 1994 - Gamini Dissanayake, the UNP
Presidential nominee, was killed by a LTTE suicide bomber. It is ironic
that Gamini’s cruel death came at a time when he, more than any other Sri
Lankan leader, had been responsible for the restoration of Tamil as an
Official Language on par with the Sinhala Language. This was made possible
by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, following the historic Indo-Sri
Lanka Accord of 1987, a timely and important attempt by Sri Lanka and
India to find a negotiated solution to the ethnic conflict.

The man behind the Accord was Gamini Dissanayake. On a
communication received from Indian journalist N. Ram, editor of ‘The
Hindu’, who had been contacted by the LTTE in Singapore, Gamini was able
to convince President J. R. Jayewardene and the Cabinet to recognize Tamil
as an official language, enjoying parity of status with the Sinhala
language, thereby responding to the basic grievance of the Tamil speaking
minority. The typical LTTE gratitude for this monumental step, to ensure
Tamil rights was the bomb that killed Gamini Dissanayake and several
others on the night of 23rd October 1994.